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Start at the Porte Dauphine metro station.
It is very difficult to describe this fine route for several reasons:
- This is an exclusively urban hike and takes many streets,
- for this reason an IGN map at 1/25000 scale is completely unnecessary, and instead you should bring a map of Paris or a particularly detailed topographical guide that can serve to inform hikers about the places they are passing and their history.
However, the track on the map can be helpful as it was made using a Sat Nav and the main points are:
Reach the roundabout at (1) Place du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, and continue to the Avenue du Maréchal Foch.
Enter the Bois de Boulogne, follow the YR (Yellow Red) markings on the GRP (Grande Randonnée de Pays) route to the Avenue de Saint Cloud (2).
Turn left on that avenue until Jardin du Ranelagh and then along Avenue Largillière, Rue des Vignes, Rue Berton, Rue d’Ankara, onto Avenue du Président Kennedy to make your way across the Seine over Bir Hakeim bridge (3).
Turn left at the exit of the bridge to take La Promenade d’Australie, Avenue de Suffren and then head to the big metal cairn overlooking Paris (the Eiffel Tower), then at the end of the Allée Adrienne Lecouvreur turn left, find the Avenue de Tourville which leads to the Palais des Invalides (4).
Take the Avenue Villars to the south, then a succession of left and right turns down streets in the following order: Rue Babylon, Rue Monsieur, Rue Oudinot, Rue Rousselet, Rue de Sèvres, Rue Saint-Romain, Rue Cherche Midi, Rue du Regard to finally arrive at Rue de Rennes (5).
Continue south through the Rue Notre Dame des Champs, reach Rue Vavin, take it left and enter the Rue d'Assas in the Luxembourg Gardens which are well worth a walk around, and leave heading into Place Edmond Rostand (6).
Turn east into Rue Soufflot to reach the Pantheon, in Rue Clovis turn right on Rue Descartes, then take Rue Monge to the left and go through a porch to the right leading to the Arènes de Lutèce amphitheatre (7).
Take Rue de Navarre out of the amphitheatre, and left to Rue Lacépède then enter the Botanical Gardens (8). Leave the gardens with the mosque ahead of you and take a left onto Rue Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, and left again on Rue Poliveau. Cross Boulevard de l'Hôpital and enter the Hospital La Pitié Salpêtrière complex via Rue Saint Louis (9).
Exit by the Rue Bruand to reach Boulevard Vincent Auriol from the left. Reach Avenue de France, head right to reach the esplanade of the Grande Bibliothèque library (10).
Then cross the Seine on the Simone de Beauvoir footbridge and, passing by Bercy Park, come to the Bercy metro station, the end of the walk (F).
This route is signposted all the way in Yellow and Red as mentioned above, this remarkable effort to provide and maintain route markings is thanks to our Parisians friends the FFRP allowing "urban hikers" to not get lost in this extraordinary maze and to familiarise themselves with the monuments mentioned in the description.
The end of this walk is at Bercy metro station, but the GRP continues to Bois de Vincennes.
From Porte Dauphine to Bercy
A walk through Paris exploring the Left Bank and its quartiers.
Technical sheet
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Activity: Walking -
Distance: 16.50 km -
Average duration: 4h 50 -
Difficulty: Moderate -
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Return to departure point: No -
Vertical gain: + 32 m -
Vertical drop: - 42 m -
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Highest point: 58 m -
Lowest point: 26 m
Photos
Description of the walk
Waypoints
- S : km 0 - alt. 46 m - Porte Dauphine
- 1 : km 0.16 - alt. 47 m - Place Mal De lattre de Tassigny
- 2 : km 2.03 - alt. 50 m - Avenue de Saint Cloud
- 3 : km 4.5 - alt. 26 m - Bir Hakeim bridge - Seine [la]
- 4 : km 5.36 - alt. 34 m - Tour Eiffel
- 5 : km 7.28 - alt. 38 m - Palais des Invalides
- 6 : km 9.59 - alt. 41 m - Rue de Rennes
- 7 : km 11.24 - alt. 50 m - Place Edmond Rostand
- 8 : km 12.47 - alt. 45 m - Arènes de Lutèce
- 9 : km 13.14 - alt. 36 m - Jardin des Plantes de Paris
- 10 : km 14.36 - alt. 38 m - Hopital Pitié Salpetriere
- 11 : km 15.65 - alt. 43 m - Bibliothèque François Mitterrand
- E : km 16.5 - alt. 32 m - Bercy
Practical information
Paris has everything needed for a hike, benches for rest, water fountains for refills.
Take great care when crossing the avenues given the density of traffic.
In the nearby area
The GRP passes by a number of widely-known landmarks, of which the key ones are:
- the Eiffel Tower,
- Invalides,
- The Panthéon,
- The Botanical Gardens,
- The François Mitterrand National Library.
Reviews and comments
4.3 / 5
4.2 / 5
4.5 / 5
Overall rating : 4.3 / 5
Date of walk : May 26, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Busy trail : No
A pleasant route with many iconic Parisian monuments.
A slight difficulty before the Pitié Salpétrière Hospital due to ongoing construction work.
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Overall rating : 4.3 / 5
Date of walk : Mar 04, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Busy trail : Yes
Crossing Paris from west to east, ideal for discovering the city's main monuments, the Eiffel Tower, Invalides, Luxembourg Gardens, Jardin des Plantes and other lesser-known places, such as the Lutece Arena and the Pitié Salpetrière hospital.
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Overall rating : 4 / 5
Date of walk : May 23, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Busy trail : No
I'd already done this walk (called Traversée de Paris d'ouest en est) some fifteen years ago and we enjoyed it immensely. I have to say that this time round, with the tramway works at the Porte Dauphine, the controlled access zone around the Eiffel Tower, the fenced-in Champ de Mars, a large palace (which we really hoped would be temporary) masking the historic perspective of the Ecole Militaire, the renovation works at the Jardin du Luxembourg and the palisade walls (and restricted access) at the Salpêtrière, we were disappointed.
Fortunately, as well as its monuments, Paris is full of charming places, beautiful buildings and many curiosities, and this tour introduced us to several of them. In the end, we continued through the beautiful Parc de Bercy to the Cour Saint-Emilion.
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Overall rating : 5 / 5
Date of walk : Jun 05, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Busy trail : No
Very early Sunday morning walk (7.30am start). No difficulties. A few things to discover: the narrow streets of Passy, the grand palais éphémère and, above all, the Parc de la Pitié. Although the main entrance is reserved for nursing staff, you can get in a little further up the boulevard near the university buildings. Even in these Covid times, the security guards let us cross the park. A real discovery
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Overall rating : 4 / 5
Date of walk : Apr 04, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Busy trail : No
We set off from the Trocadéro at 9am (because of the 10 km radius confinement) on Sunday 4 April in glorious sunshine.
It was a great ride through Paris, allowing us to rediscover some beautiful sites.
At points 9 and 10 we were unable to take rue Saint Louis. Enormous roadworks and everything was blocked off. We were not allowed to enter the hospital via the visitor entrance. So we went to Bld Vincent Auriol via rue Jenner, 100 metres away.
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Overall rating : 3.7 / 5
Date of walk : Feb 09, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
The central section, through the different districts of Paris, lacks precision and is too general a description of the route.
Thank goodness for maps and GPS.
That said, the idea of the route is interesting.
Thank you
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Overall rating : 4.3 / 5
Date of walk : Feb 16, 2019
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Lovely walk in superb weather. The route is varied and very pleasant.
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On the other hand, I forgot to mention that this route took us through some very beautiful streets and delighted my wife and me. Render unto Caesar......
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Good evening
Many thanks for this advice, which I'll try to put into practice for a future description.
I'm surprised, however, that the previous comments don't mention this difficulty in finding one's way around at all.
Have a nice evening.
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Overall rating : 3 / 5
Date of walk : Feb 01, 2019
Reliability of the description : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Clarity of route map : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
I found that the description of the route was very brief and even with a map of Paris we sometimes had difficulty finding our way around. We should take inspiration from the route "from the Latin Quarter to the Cité Universitaire", which is perfectly detailed street by street.
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Overall rating : 4.3 / 5
Date of walk : Jan 06, 2019
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
don't hesitate to deviate from the route (e.g. avenue Rapp "Lavirotte building" and square Rapp right next door)
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Overall rating : 4.7 / 5
Date of walk : Jan 05, 2018
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
A lovely walk, very well explained, and with the fine weather we had, it was great.
We stopped at the Jardin des Plantes because our boots were full of it, and changed the route to take in the swan alley.
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Overall rating : 4.7 / 5
Date of walk : Dec 17, 2017
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
A walk that allows you to discover various districts and aspects of Paris.
A walk that avoids crowded streets.
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